In a well attended meeting at the Alabare HQ building on Churchfields, Safer Salisbury member organisations heard about the ongoing work of SaSS in bringing local support organisations together and moved on to think about ways of holding community conversations as the need for statutory and voluntary social care and health to work together becomes ever more apparent.
Chair Anne Trevett briefly outlined the work of SaSS since our last AGM in 2020 and reported ongoing work on registering SaSS with the Charities Commission and applying for a major Lottery grant. In the interim we are very grateful that Wiltshire Community Foundation has generously provided funding to allow us to continue to operate whilst progressing both the charity registration and funding bid and get it right.
SaSS continues to deliver our Showcases, our key interface with the wider community, bringing services together to show what support is on offer, and helping to signpost to the range of local services. Showcase themes have been Getting Out Again Safely and Mental Health, with an All inclusive Showcase planned for May 2023, for people with disabilities and families alike.
The network then heard presentations on 3 different aspects of Holding Community Conversations; from Mary Reed of Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living on their approach to communicating with people on the ground, from Adele Owens on the new “movement” by Wiltshire Council to open up conversations with residents on Bemerton Heath and a similar estate in Trowbridge, and from Alan Michell, Chair of Healthwatch Wiltshire on the work of creating the new Integrated Planning reform of Health and Social Care and opening up conversations with the wider community. Copies of their presentations are available from SaSS administrator Linda Baker.